What did the NFL Draft teach us? There’s no shame losing to LSU

Monday Morning Quarterback

If we learned anything from the NFL Draft, it was this … there was no shame in Clemson losing to LSU in the College Football Playoff National Championship this past January. If anything, it was amazing Clemson even hung with LSU as long as it did.

Granted, we all knew LSU had a great football team this past year, but the NFL Draft proved exactly how great it really was. The Bayou Bengals set an NFL Draft record with 14 selections this past weekend, including the No. 1 overall pick in quarterback Joe Burrow.

I mean, it wasn’t as if Clemson did not have anyone drafted. The ACC’s Tigers had seven selections, the second-best weekend in the modern draft for the program, only bested by the nine players the 2016 Draft selected. Six of Clemson’s seven picks came in the first four rounds of the draft, a school record.

In other words, it was an exceptionally good draft for Clemson, whose seven overall selections were tied for the fifth best mark in the country.

But LSU’s class was amazing. The SEC Tigers’ had five players taken in the first round. At the end of the third round on Friday night, they had 10 players selected.

I know Clemson fans are partial to their 2018 team’s greatness. And deservedly so. Those Tigers were the first team in the modern era of college football to post a 15-0 record, which ended with a blowout victory against Alabama in the CFP National Championship Game.

Dabo Swinney labeled them the greatest team ever, the first team in major college football to win 15 games in a season since 1897.

However, as great as that 2018 team was, just six players were selected in the 2019 NFL Draft, which included a school record three first-round selections. Now, that isn’t too shabby, but comparing that team’s draft class to LSU’s 2020 Class, it isn’t even close.

We will never truly know who the better team really is when comparing Clemson’s 15-0 National Champion vs. LSU’s 15-0 National Champion. But LSU does get the nod when it comes to NFL talent. And you can’t argue that.

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